AK/WA Adventure: Day 5

Saturday, August 2nd. 

Queen Anne to Bellingham. 

Nicole made bagels and apple slices for Sylvain and I for breakfast, and hot chocolate for the girls. It was Sylvain's first bagel of the trip.

We headed out shortly before 10 to drive to Bellingham and arrived shortly after noon. The skies were gray most of the drive, but they cleared up as we approached our destination and we had a nice sunny afternoon there.

We all piled in Dana's Explorer and drove downtown to the Farmer's Market. We looked around at the crafts and then found food for lunch: pizza for the girls and Sylvain, salmon sandwiches from Eva's Wild for the rest of us. They were tasty! Then Maëva got a lime shave ice and Laureva chose a small basket of organic strawberries. 

After lunch, we walked around town a bit. There was a big water fight going on out in front of a local brewery. Then we walked down by the harbor. It was quite breezy and there were a couple people out flying kites. Next, we went up the hill a bit. As we were parking, Laureva saw a spider on the car seat and freaked out. Luckily, Dana found it and crushed it, so the car was safe again. We walked to an establishment called Elizabeth Station with a massive beer cave (think Pops but with beer instead of soda). I tried a draft Boundary Bay local IPA because Dana had told me it was the oldest local brewery, but would soon be closing indefinitely when the owners retire. On the way back to the car, we saw a black squirrel in the park and learned that is the local species. More deer were sighted as well as we drove around town.

We went back to the harbor about 4:15 to meet Nate at Beach Cat for beer and egg rolls. I had a Summer Ale:

Back at Dana and Cece's, we were joined by Nate's wife Makena and their dog River. The girls favorite part of the day was playing with River. He did his tricks: Sit, Down, Shake and Touch. We sat outside around their "Place de l'Apéro" fire pit. The sign came with the house and they decided to keep it there. Later, we went inside for a dinner of fresh garden green salad, garden zucchini salsa, steak and shrimp tacos, and

Homemade lemon ice cream.

Nate is an amateur bourbon fan and brought over five of his thirty or so bottles when he heard I liked whisky. I tried two. One which he said was his favorite of the standard bottles, and a stronger one. Both were single barrel bottles and nice a smooth and flavorful. I always think bourbon tastes like coconut, compared to scotch. It must have something to do with the corn content. 

We found out Nate and Makena were in London in November and Barcelona in the spring. We invited them to come visit us any time. Maybe they will!